Rotary-acting fowl tendon puller and leg severer



Jan. 24, 1956 s. B. OSBORNE 2,731,664

ROTARY-ACTING FOWL TENDON FULLER AND use SEVERER Filed March 4, 1953INVE N TOR $70,497 B. OSBORAE- BY a ,Qo-od United States PatentOROTARY-ACTING FOWL TENDON PULLER AND LEG SEVERER Stuart B. Osborne,Medway, Mass.

Application March 4, 1953, Serial No. 340,212

2 Claims. (Cl. 1711.3)

This invention relates to a rotary-acting fowl tendon puller and legseverer, particularly for use in severing the legs and pulling thetendons out of the upper joints of turkeys and other like fowl.

In order that the principle of the invention may be readily understood,I have disclosed a single embodiment thereof in the accompanyingdrawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of the apparatusconstituting the fowl tendon puller and leg severer;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof;

Fig. 3 is a vertical, transverse section taken through the functioningpart of the apparatus and showing one leg of the fowl positioned forseverance just below the joint and the other leg of the fowl supportedupon the outer surface of the power-driven rotary member, the severingedge of which is about 90 anterior to the severing position;

Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section similar to Fig. 3, butrepresenting the rotary member turned forward somewhat in excess of 180from the position shown in Fig. 3, and representing the severed portionof the leg as about to be ejected and also representing the tendons asbeing drawn along behind and still connected to the severed leg portion;

Fig. 5 is a view generally similar to Figs. 3 and 4, but representingthe severing edge of the rotary member as just making severing contactwith a leg of the fowl, and also representing guarding means that may beprovided to safeguard the hand of the operator; and

Fig. '6 is a detail, in section, on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5 and brokenaway, showing said guarding means.

Devices for pulling the tendons from the upper joints of fowl have, sofar as I am aware, always been characterized by a movement or movementsin a straight line. In contrast therewith I have by my inventionprovided a preferably power-driven rotary member supported upon itspreferably driven shaft and having a long, arcuate-shaped face that isprovided with a dull, cutting, leading edge, and which arcuate-shapedface is rotated, continuously if desired, past the correspondinglyshaped upper face of a fixed block or base, the upper front, transverseinner edge of which is a dull cutting edge. Thus the rotatable membermay be described as rotatably nested within but slightly spaced fromsaid block or base.

Referring to the drawing and more particularly to Figs. 1 to 4 thereof,there is provided by me a fixed block or base member 1 of any suitablematerial, and having a concaved or arcuately shaped upper face 2. Theblock or base 1 should be of substantial weight so that it holds itsposition upon a table such as 2 or other supporting framework or evenupon the floor upon which it may be placed. Therefore, the block or base1 may be of suitable hard wood, thus constituting a solid member, or itmay be of some suitable metal, such as cast iron or steel, in which caseit is desirably not solid, but the bottom portion of the fixed block orbase 1 should be sufiiciently thick to prevent it being readilydisplaced in operation, if a table-like support is not provided. Ifdesired, it may be provided at its bottom with laterally projectingflanges, having openings through which securing screws such as 2" may beinserted to hold the block or base firmly in place either to the flooror to the table or other support 2'.

The arcuate face 2 is represented as extending through 180, thusproviding horizontal, transverse, narrow end faces 3 and 4, the formerof which is provided with a dull, cutting inner edge 5, extending alongthe entire transverse extent of the block or base 1.

Suitably supported midway between the upper transverse faces 3 and 4 ofthe block or base 1 is a shaft 6, supported in any suitable manner, andif desired, in

\ uprights 6', 6' rising from the block or base 1, and preferablylocated at the same horizontal plane as the said faces 3 and 4, so thatthe face of the rotary member 7, to be described, is concentric with thearcuate upper face 2 of the block or base 1 and moves in a pathconcentric with said arcuate face 2. Such shaft 6 is driven from anysuitable source of power, and preferably at a slow speed, so as to givethe operator plenty of time to present the fowl, held in his hands, andlay it on the transverse end face 3 so that the legs-that is,

the portions thereof that are to be severed by the rotatingmember-extend inward, perpendicular or normal to the dull cutting edge5. For the purpose I have represented a gear motor 6" and a powertransmission belt or band 6".

Upon the" shaft 6 is fast the rotating metallic member 7, provided witha radial, wide arm 8, terminating in a long arcuate face 9 thatpreferably extends, as shown, throughout substantially and terminates intwo transversely extending terminal faces 10 and 11. The two arcuatefaces 2 and 9 are concentric.

The edge 12 of the transversely extending face 11 is a dull cutting edgeand acts against or closely against the dull cutting edge 5 of thearcuate face 2 of the fixed block or base 1. In effect, the rotarymember 7 is rotatably nested with the member 1, but slightly spaced fromthe said arcuate face 2 of the block or base 1.

There is a sufiicient gap or space between the arcuate face 2 of theblock or base 1 and the concentric arcuate face 9 of the rotary member7, which gap or space is narrow enough, as for example, about A to /1 ofan inch, or slightly more, to permit and provide for the shearing of thetwo legs of the fowl, preferably one after the other, but is such as toallow the tendons of the fowl to be grasped by the leading edge of therotary member 7 and to be pulled out of the upper joints of the legs bythe continued rotary movement of the member 7 without such tendons beingcut by the shearing edge 5 of the block or base 1 and the edge 12 of thearcuate face 9 of the rotating member 7. The legs are sheared,preferably one after the other, and the tendons are pulled in the sameoperation or operations. The cut-off legs are either one after the otheror together forced downward, around, and then upward in a quite longpath, and are ejected along with the pulledout tendons at the face 4 asis indicated in Fig. 4.

The edge 5 of the face 2 of the block or base 1 and the edge 12 of therotating member 7 constitute severing aws.

Sufficient space is provided as a gap between the arcuate faces of theblock or base 1 and the rotating member 7, as, for example, between /Bto of an inch as stated. This may vary for different sizes of fowl. Thisconstruction and relation of parts make certain that the severed legsare carried around between such faces 2 and 9 along with the pulled-outtendons.

The shaft 6 may, as already described, be driven by any suitable means,as for example by a small electric or other motor 6", the speed of whichmay be set very low. If desired, the shaft 6 might even be manuallyrotated, as by providing a crank handle on one end of said shaft 6, inwhich case the motor 6" and the table 2' may be omitted, or the motorcould be used alternatively.

The radial length of the arm 8 from the axis of the shaft 6 to thearcuate face 9 of the rotating member 7 may be such as is found mostsuitable, as for example, six to eight inches. In any event, the twoarcuate faces 2 and 9 must be concentric. My invention is, however, notlimited to any particular size or proportion of parts. Also the width ofthe rotatable member 7 and of the fixed block or base 1. may be such asis found in operation to be most suitable. it might be desired to makethe width great enough so that two fowls, suitably held, may be operatedupon at the same time, side by side.

The speed of operation of the shaft 6 must be such as to permit thewithdrawal of the body of one fowl and the positioning of the next onebefore the cutting edge 12 moves up, over and down to meet the dullcutting edge 5 and so act upon the next fowl, or between the severingoperations of the two legs if they are separately presented as indicatedin Fig. 3.

The length of the arcuate faces 2 and 9 is such as to provide for a longpulling movement upon the tendons of the upper joints of the fowl. Forexample, if the rotatable member 7 has a radius of but 6 in. and thearcuate faces are of semi-circular extent an effective linear pulldistance of at least 18 in. is had, along the circumferential pathdefined between said faces.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the rotatable member or part 7 has theform of an arm 8 extending from the shaft 6, such arm merging into the.prolonged arcuate face 9 that is received within the arcuate face 2 ofthe block or base stationary member or part 1.

If desired, and as indicated in Figs. 5 and 6, I may provide a guardindicated generally at 13 in said figures, and which consists oftransversely extending elevations 14, between which are suitable spaces15 into any one of which a leg of the fowl may be placed. Thisconstruction guards the fingers of the operator. This guard may be heldin place by screws, one of which is represented at 16 in Fig. 5.

I have shown the part of the face 9 of the rotary member 7 which is inadvance of the radial arm 8 as of much greater length than the followingpart which terminates at the end 11, but my invention is not limited tosuchconstruction, which, however, applies the power very directly to thecutting edge 12.

Having thus described a single embodiment only of the invention, Idesire it to be understood that although specific terms are employed,they are used in a generic sense and not for purposes of limitation, andthat the scope of the invention is set forth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. An automatic turkey-leg severing and tendon pulling machinecomprising, a basal fixed element having a parti-cylindrical axiallyelongate upwardly open troughlike cavity presenting a concave workingface of substantial circumferential linear extent and havingsubstantially diametrically opposed entrance and exit ends, acooperative rotary element formed with a convex face of likecircumferential linear extent but of lesser radius and having leadingand trailing ends, means for rotatively mounting the rotary element upona horizontal axis concentrically with the fixed element for continuousrevolution of the convex face along past and in closely spacedparallelism with the concave face, said spacing being substantially lessthan the thickness of the average leg to be severed and drawn, powermeans to drive the rotary element continuously in one direction, theentrance end of the concave-faced cavity and the leading end of-therotary element having cooperative dull rounded edge formations adaptedfor crush-shearing but non-tcndon-severing interaction upon a turkey-leginserted into the cavity in advance of the revolving rotary element, andthe leading end of the rotary element being formed to engage behind andto push the sheared leg portion through the cavity and simultaneously topull the attached upper leg tendons along through the circumferentialand linearly extensive channel defined between the then opposed concaveand convex faces of the fixed and the rotary elements and then to ejectthe leg and tendons at the exit end of the cavity;

2. A leg severing and tendon pulling machine according to claim 1wherein the convex rotary element is extended circumferentially in thetrailing direction through substantially of arc and provides a blockingsurface acting to exclude the upper leg portion from entering the cavityduring a tendon-pulling operation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS GreatBritain Mar. 6, 1930-

